Your child has learned how the pieces move. They know the knight jumps in an L and the bishop travels diagonally. And then the game begins — and they sit there, hand hovering, with no idea what to do first. This is the moment almost every young player gets stuck, and it is exactly what chess openings are for.

The good news for parents: openings are far simpler than they sound. Your child does not need to memorise hundreds of moves, and they certainly do not need to know what a "Najdorf Sicilian" is. What they need is a small handful of sensible first moves, and an understanding of why those moves are sensible. That is what this guide gives you — ten openings, explained in plain language, in the order a child should meet them.

1What exactly is a chess opening?

A chess opening is the first five to ten moves of a game, played in a recognised pattern that strong players have tested over hundreds of years. Think of it as the way a footballer starts a match: not a script for the whole game, but a reliable way to get the team into good positions before the real contest begins.

Openings have names because someone, somewhere, studied them and wrote them down. The Italian Game, the Sicilian Defence, the Queen's Gambit — these are simply labels for move sequences that keep proving themselves. When your child plays 1.e4 followed by 2.Nf3 and 3.Bc4, they are playing the Italian Game whether they know the name or not. The name is a shortcut for talking about it, nothing more.

2The 3 rules behind every good opening

Every strong opening in chess obeys the same three rules: control the centre, develop your pieces quickly, and get your king safe by castling. Teach a child these three ideas and they can play a reasonable opening against anyone, even in a position they have never seen before.

Control the centre. The four squares in the middle of the board are the most valuable real estate in chess, because a piece standing there attacks more squares than one stuck in a corner. This is why so many games start with a centre pawn stepping forward two squares.

Develop your pieces. Knights and bishops sitting on their starting squares are doing nothing at all. Bringing them out — knights before bishops, as a rough guide — gets them into the game. A useful rule for children: try not to move the same piece twice in the opening until everything else has moved once.

Castle early. Castling does two jobs in one move: it tucks the king behind a wall of pawns and brings a rook towards the centre. Most coaching advice is to castle within the first ten moves, and children who follow this habit lose far fewer games to sudden attacks.

35 chess openings for White your child should know

The five best openings for a beginner playing White are the Italian Game, the London System, the Scotch Game, the Ruy Lopez and the Queen's Gambit — roughly in that order of difficulty. Each one follows the three rules above, and each teaches a slightly different lesson.

1. The Italian Game — 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4

This is the classic first opening for children, and for good reason: it does everything right, obviously. The pawn claims the centre, the knight develops and attacks, and the bishop points straight at Black's weakest square. Children can see the logic of every move, which is exactly what a first opening should do.

2. The London System — 1.d4 followed by Bf4, e3, Nf3, c3

The London is the calm, dependable choice. White plays almost the same setup no matter what Black does, which is enormously reassuring for a nervous beginner. It is less exciting than the Italian, but for a child who panics when the game goes off-script, the London is a gift.

3. The Scotch Game — 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4

The Scotch opens the position immediately by challenging in the centre on move three. Children who enjoy attacking love it, and it teaches an important idea early: sometimes you trade a pawn tension for fast, free development.

4. The Ruy Lopez — 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5

Also called the Spanish Opening, this is the most studied opening in chess history. It takes its name from a 16th-century Spanish priest and chess analyst who examined it in print in 1561. The idea — pressuring the knight that defends Black's central pawn — is a little abstract, so most coaches introduce it once a child is comfortable with the Italian.

5. The Queen's Gambit — 1.d4 d5 2.c4

White offers a pawn to pull Black's defender away from the centre. It is not really a gambit at all, since White can usually win the pawn back, and it teaches children one of the most valuable lessons in chess: material is not the only thing worth having.

45 chess defences for Black your child should know

As Black, a beginner needs only two answers to start with — one for 1.e4 and one for 1.d4 — but these five defences cover almost everything a child will meet in their first few hundred games.

6. The Scandinavian Defence — 1.e4 d5

The simplest defence in this list, and often the best first choice for a young player. Black challenges the centre immediately, and the resulting positions are straightforward. The one thing to teach alongside it: after the queen comes out early, she must be ready to step back when attacked.

7. The Caro-Kann Defence — 1.e4 c6

A quiet, solid defence that prepares to strike the centre with d5 on the next move without exposing anything. Children who dislike chaos tend to thrive on the Caro-Kann, and it builds excellent habits around pawn structure.

8. The French Defence — 1.e4 e6

Similar in spirit to the Caro-Kann, but sharper. Black builds a solid pawn chain and then counter-attacks its base. The one wrinkle worth explaining early is the light-squared bishop, which can get stuck behind its own pawns.

9. The Sicilian Defence — 1.e4 c5

The most popular and most aggressive reply to 1.e4 in the whole of chess. It is also the most theory-heavy, which is why it is best saved until a child has real confidence. Played simply, though, the Sicilian teaches something valuable: Black does not have to copy White.

10. The King's Indian Defence — 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6

Black lets White build a big centre, then attacks it later with pieces and a pawn storm. It is ambitious and takes patience, so treat it as a stretch goal rather than a starting point — but children who like grand plans often fall in love with it.

5Which opening should your child learn first?

Start with the Italian Game as White and the Scandinavian Defence as Black — that pairing covers most beginner games and takes about twenty minutes to teach. From there, age and temperament matter more than rating.

Ages 5–7: skip opening names entirely. Teach one sentence — "pawn to the middle, knights out, bishops out, castle" — and let them play. At this age the win comes from not hanging pieces, not from theory.

Ages 8–10: introduce two named openings, roughly six moves deep, and explain the purpose of each move as you go. This is usually the age where a child starts to enjoy having "their" opening, which is a wonderful motivator.

Ages 11–14: a repertoire becomes genuinely useful. Add a second option as White, a defence against 1.d4, and start reviewing their own games to see where the opening actually went wrong. This is also the stage where tournament play begins to reward preparation.

6The 5 most common opening mistakes kids make

Almost every lost beginner game traces back to the same five errors, and all of them are fixable in a single coaching session.

Bringing the queen out too early. The queen looks powerful, so children rush her into the game — where every enemy piece chases her around, and White loses three tempi running away. Develop knights and bishops first.

Moving the same piece twice. Shuffling one knight back and forth while seven pieces sit at home is the single most common opening flaw in junior chess.

Grabbing pawns instead of developing. A free pawn on the edge of the board is rarely worth two moves of development, and children learn this best by losing a game to it once.

Forgetting to castle. A king stuck in the centre while the position opens is the reason for a large share of junior losses. Make castling a habit, not a decision.

Copying the opponent. Mirroring every move feels safe, but whoever breaks the symmetry first usually gets the advantage — and it is always White who gets to choose the moment.

7How much opening theory does a child really need?

Far less than most parents imagine. Below roughly 1200 rating, a child needs about six moves of two openings and nothing more; almost every game at that level is decided by tactics and blunders long before opening knowledge becomes relevant.

This is where well-meaning parents often over-invest. Buying an opening book for a seven-year-old is a bit like buying advanced grammar exercises for a child still learning to read aloud — the ceiling is not where the problem is. Time spent on simple tactics puzzles, basic checkmates and endgames will improve results far faster.

It is worth being honest about the wider claims, too. Research on whether chess improves school performance is genuinely mixed: a widely cited meta-analysis of chess instruction found modest gains in maths and general cognitive ability, while later studies with tighter control groups found much smaller effects, as a review of the research discusses. What is not in dispute is that chess gives children sustained practice at sitting with a hard problem, thinking ahead, and living with the consequences of their own decisions. For most parents, that is the point.

Where to go from here

Pick one opening from this list, play it ten times, and talk through what happened. That is the whole method. Openings are not something a child studies once and knows — they are something a child grows into, one game at a time, with someone watching who can say "that move looked tempting, but here is what it cost us."

That last part is the bit a book cannot do. It is also why so many families move from apps and videos to live coaching once their child is genuinely hooked: the feedback has to be about their game, in the moment, in language a nine-year-old will actually take on board.